The Gymnastics Display: A Speech Day Tradition
A recent donation of a short film to the School’s Archive has highlighted a Speech Day tradition from the past. Jonny Taylor investigates.
On Saturday, Head Monitor Yuvraj Juttla will deliver a speech to those gathered for St Barnabas' Day. The speech is one of several traditions that dates back over four centuries to the first ‘Election Day’ in 1567, where scholars demonstrated their academic prowess and were ‘elected’ to St John’s College, Oxford, also founded by Sir Thomas White of the Merchant Taylors’ Company. As such, the day is seen as a celebration of the academic achievements of the School. However, alongside marking the success of the prize winners, other traditions have been associated with the day. The Art Exhibition has long been a long-established feature but few in the School will know that for nearly a century St Barnabas' Day, or Speech Day as it was referred to then, would also be the occasion for a display by the gymnastic squad of Merchant Taylors’.
Gymnastics at Merchant Taylors’ dated back to the 1880s when the Head Master, William Baker OMT, followed a trend across the public schools by developing games activities which were:
‘as desirable for the healthy development of a boy's character and as furnishing a wholesome corrective to the narrowing effects of excessive competition.’
With the move from Suffolk Lane to Charterhouse Square, there arose the opportunity to build a gymnasium, which was completed in 1884. Gymnastic exercises were introduced to the curriculum and Staff-Sergeant Martin of the R.M. Depot was appointed as Gymnastic Instructor. It would appear that the new discipline did not immediately excite the boys, the Taylorian of 1886 carried a satirical article entitled “Socrates on School Jokes”. The orator asks about school things that 'we think irksome indeed, but also beneficial to us? I mean the compulsory training in gymnastic and mathematic…’
Similarly, the institution of the annual gymnastics competition found few entrants and fewer observers – the Taylorian suggested the introduction of ‘boxing, single stick and other features likely to make the entertainment generally attractive to members of the School and their friends, and a proportionate entailment of the present exercises.’
In 1890, the Taylorian surveyed the range of sports offered at the School and assessed the impact of each.
Standards remained variable at the School – partly it was felt because the trainers had to focus on working with whole classes rather than developing individual talent to a higher level. There were some notable exceptions, such as LG Howe, who won the top award for gymnastics in 1898, a Silver Medal which is now in the collection of the School Archive. 
Nevertheless, by 1889 the School was sufficiently proud of its gymnasts that a display was included as part of Speech Day and this tradition appears to have been maintained for many decades thereafter. In 1891, the Taylorian reported that 36 members of the school took part in the display, the majority from the Lower School.
The tradition was maintained after the move to Sandy Lodge in 1933, and it is the display of 1936 that has come to light as the result of a short extract of film discovered by Chris Carr (OMT 1968-1973), who attended the school with both his brother John (1958-1963) and half-brother William (1936-1941). The film was shot by their father in 1936 and coincided with the innovation of including a swimming display alongside the gymnasts. The short film can be viewed by clicking on this YouTube link or on the image at the top of the page.
The expansion of the display was explained in the Taylorian.
The gymnastic display on Speech Day carried on well into the 1960s, another innovation in 1961 was its accompaniment by the School Band. However, by the end of the decade it was starting to feel a little dated, and the last display was in 1971 as former Director of Sport, John Pallant, recounts:
‘I overlapped with Jaques Brown for one year and he did some very basic stuff in PE lessons, mainly in the summer term to prepare for the Speech Day display... some indifferent vaulting over buck and box and then the frightful human pyramid!
The trend was then for Educational Gymnastics and we joined a nationwide scheme devised by the British Amateur Gymnastics Awards; a scheme for all abilities. I think I did one gym display in my second year before swapping over to a Staff v Boys volleyball match – much more entertaining and so easy to organise!’
We are very grateful to Chris Carr (OMT 1973) for sharing this reminder of times past with us.